Methods are known for bonding an adhesive film to a semiconductor chip. For example, such methods involve removing a structure which includes a semiconductor wafer from a wafer carrier. In particular, the semiconductor wafer is severed by a laser beam, and an adhesive layer is also severed at the same time such that individual semiconductor chips to which the parts of adhesive film remain attached can be picked up from the wafer carrier. Subsequently, the parts of adhesive film severed via the laser, along with the semiconductor chip, can be fixed on a chip pad of a leadframe in a pick-and-place machine.
This method has the disadvantage that the singulation of the adhesive layer requires severing with laser ablation. The laser ablation entails the risk that both the edge sides and the active upper side of the semiconductor chip become contaminated with evaporating adhesive material.
In other cases, the semiconductor wafer with a corresponding adhesive film is severed via saw blades. The diamond-tipped saw blades which sever the semiconductor wafer become soiled by the adhesive film such that a premature exchange of the diamond-tipped saw blades is required. In addition, here, too, the edges and upper sides of the semiconductor chip are not protected from contamination by the material of the adhesive film. Furthermore, sawing through two materials that are so different can lead to microcracks in the semiconductor material of the semiconductor wafer.
Another known method involves applying the adhesive film to a sawed semiconductor wafer only after severing of the semiconductor chips, and the film is severed in a subsequent process via a laser method. With this separate performance of the separating operations, in that the semiconductor wafer material is sawed first and the adhesive film is subsequently severed by a laser method, problems arise due to contamination by the evaporating adhesive material.